CRN Interview: Ralph Martino, IBM Global Services

Martino, appointed last fall as vice president of strategy and marketing at IBM Global Services, talks with Industry Editor Craig Zarley about the services giant's plan to partner with solution providers more often.

CRN: Does IBM Global Services aim to increase partnerships with solution providers?

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Ralph Martino, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing, IBM Global Services.

MARTINO: In our mind, there is an enormous opportunity to work with our partners in all markets we serve and figure out how to selectively get into markets where we don't have coverage and our partners provide that coverage. We are very focused on growing business with partners and on serving the small- and midsize-business markets as well.

We want business partners to resell and add to their service offerings with IGS capabilities. Second, the ISVs of world know that IBM doesn't compete with them, and we want to embrace them as go-to-market partners. Third, there is a need to selectively partner to get to markets that we want to serve that we otherwise would not have access to on our own.

CRN: Solution providers have expressed frustration in partnering with IGS, especially in that third area you mentioned. How can they do this, and what's your plan for increasing such partnerships?

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MARTINO: We clearly have a desire to sign up more partners, have more teaming agreements with partners and have more engagements with partners. My message to them is to aggressively approach us with the capabilities they have and the opportunities they see.

CRN: Is there a formal process to qualify as a strategic IGS partner?

MARTINO: Yes. We call it a teaming agreement. IGS engages partners that have relationships through the brand and product side of IBM. They come to us in any way,including the [IBM Web site, if that's the only way they can get to us and ask someone to get back to them. But there is an agreement. We do it selectively. We want to make sure we can match capabilities. This is a quality and not a quantity statement, but we are nowhere near out of capacity in terms of willingness and desire to partner. We are looking for quality, capability and competency.

CRN: What type of business partners are you seeking in these teaming agreements?

MARTINO: We are looking for geographic access and presence. We are looking for industry expertise and traditional service delivery capability as well. We subcontract to partners where they have unique capabilities. We'll pass them leads when they have unique geographic presence, unique industry value or unique skill sets.

CRN: How much do business partners contribute to IGS revenue?

MARTINO: $6 billion. That is the number today that we earn as revenue to IGS from business partner relationships, including IGS services resold by the channel, services we provide off ISV solutions and co-delivery opportunities when we have teaming agreements in place.